


Year 500

by Writer2413 (Ghost_Writing)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Apocalypse, Fantasy, Horror, Kidnapping, Memory Loss, Mutation, Other, Post-Apocalypse, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost_Writing/pseuds/Writer2413
Summary: It has been exactly 500 years since humanity knew comfort. There used to be six of us… but now, I’m alone. It’s been years since I’ve seen another soul, the only thing that’s keeping me sane is my own mind.
Kudos: 1





	Year 500

It has been exactly 500 years since humanity knew comfort. There used to be six of us… but now, I’m alone. It’s been years since I’ve seen another soul, the only thing that’s keeping me sane is my own mind. 

I adjust the gun that’s resting between my legs and continue to stare out the window at the trees passing by me. The sky’s still a sickening teal colour, it’s gotten more green every day I’ve been alive. There are notes in journals that tell of when the sky was blue, so blue that humanity had tried for years to match it but could only come close.

Every day I ride this train from my home, to as far as I can go, searching, hoping that one day, I’ll find someone else. We had restored the train as one of our first tasks so that we could get around without being eaten.

There’s a lurch and the train comes to a halt at the final station. I pick up my gun and put the strap over my shoulder before making my way off the train and onto the platform overgrown with vegetation. 

Cautiously I creep off the platform, keeping all my senses sharp in case something bursts out to attach me. Or worse, it finds me. I’m still not sure if it is it or more than one, but all I know is that all my friends slowly started disappearing because of it, and now it’s coming for me.

Crunch!

I turn around to see something disappear into the forest. Slowly I start backing up towards the train until I hear a low growl behind me. I turn around to come face to face with a beast. Its large teeth protrude from its mouth and gums like sharp daggers, drool drips down onto the ground below it. Its body resembles something of creatures I’ve only read about, mountain lions. Except this is more fierce, more frightening. 

I can see its eyes lock on me as my arm reaches behind me and grabs my gun. I cock it slowly before taking a deep breath and running towards the train. These animals are precious, yet dangerous. I can hear it following me and look back to be sure. It’s running full force at me. 

I turn around when I reach the train, and almost instinctively, I fire, forgetting the one rule of going outside. Creatures always travel in pairs. 

As the creature goes down, I witness something gorgeous. A small cub that looks exactly like the sketches of mountain lions emerges from the trees. I grab the syringe off of my belt, shaking up the liquid inside of it before loading it into my gun. 

I have one shot at this. I watch it walk up to its… mother?... And paw at the body. In this world, it’s kill or be killed, but I never had the heart to do so. The mother is still breathing, only tranquillized. I creep closer. Line up, and fire.

The baby goes down fast. And I work faster. Before anything else can see me, I’m running forwards. I first pick up the cub and carry her back to the train car for creatures. Afterward, I place a tracking chip in her neck for safety measures. Then I go back to check on the mother. Her vitals are stable, and she’s still breathing. I leave her some meat. I need to keep her fed since she produced a non-mutated cub. I carefully place a tracker in her neck, a small chip that will let me know her location. 

I stand up and check my watch, two little lights blinking on the screen that tells me their location. I smile again and head back to the train. Before I depart I make sure the baby is secure and ready for transport. 

I never thought I’d manage to find another.

The train ride back is long and boring as I stare out at the desolated wasteland that I came to call home. As far as the eye can see there is nothing but mutated trees, off-coloured rivers, and sickening plant growth. 

As I zoom past on the train high above it all, a small frown creeps onto my face.

Not long after we reach the wall. No journal has any record of this wall being built or how it was found. The farthest back only states that “...the wall keeps us safe. We must use it to preserve the un-mutated life, and ourselves…” There’s nothing on how it was created. No record except for those five words, the wall keeps us safe.

The train passes through the wall, and all I see is darkness until my vision is restored. I look down and marvel at our home. Creatures great and small, those who haven’t mutated are protected here. That is if they’re docile enough to be brought home. The idea is that one day, I will release them all from here and maybe this world will stand a chance at having another life.

I press the button overhead and drop the food I collected for them down, watching them run towards it in a frenzy. I smile as I see some of my favorites come out victorious. 

The train slows into the first station and comes to a clunky halt. I stand up and deboard. Heading to the back of the train I notice one of my animals coming to see me. He’s a gorgeous specimen, a full-grown male cougar when we found him he was just a cub, and now I’m guessing he just barely qualifies as a teenager. And I finally have the female to complete the set.

Carefully I take the groggy cub out of the car and place her down on the grass near the male. He looks at me with large yellow eyes before walking forwards and sniffing the cub. She purs. 

Satisfied that she’ll be safe, I head back to the train, taking the last ride back to my home.

The train pulls into my final station and powers down. I deboard the vehicle and collect the items I found. Berries, pieces of metal, and random objects that are disturbing to find. Today I found another journal. I didn’t have time to look through it yet, and I slip it into my satchel so I don’t lose it.

Once all the items are put away in my storage shed, I head to my house. It’s a large log cabin-like structure that has a brick fireplace and a solid foundation. According to the journals, it was one of the first built. I turn the handle on the door and step inside.

There’s a woven rug in the middle of the main room, and a day bed pushed against the far left wall, facing the fireplace. I hang my coat on the coat rack as well as my satchel. I take off my boots so I don’t track dirt inside, and take the journal out. Carefully I walk towards my fire and add some more wood so it’ll keep my home warm.

I head to my kitchen and set the journal down on the stone countertop before taking out my dried meat and some berries. I also reward myself with a glass of purified water before I sit down at my table. 

Taking a deep breath in, I open the cover of the journal. There are two dates written on the first-page year “47 to year 48”.

I gasp. 

The journal drops from my hands as I dash to the bookshelf where the other journals (and books) are stored take out the last one on the bottom row, “92 to year 93”. I frantically search the others, desperately trying to find a lower date. Nothing. There’s a feeling of excitement and fear building up in me. 

This is the oldest journal I’ve found.

I rush back to the table and flip to the first page... 

“11/06/47”

“This journal will be the first of many. May it hold a record of our journey, and who we are and what we have witnessed. I have already told my daughter Jinny that she must continue these when I am gone. We’ve been walking for days, our feet are sore and our supplies are growing less and less. There’s no sign of life, and every day we pass more corpses. There are dead bodies and animals everywhere. Three days ago we found Marco’s body. It drove John to insanity. We haven’t seen him since. These journals are our last hope of someone ever finding us.”

“Sincerely, Jane”

My body grows stiff. I pick up the journal from 92 years ago, the name Jinny. Was written at the bottom. The first entry, “My mom died today.” A sickening feeling fell into my stomach.

These journals weren’t a mistake, they were a legacy, they told a story and were meant to be found. I pick up my most recent journal, from year 463. I haven’t found any journals since then. I turn the page to the first name and written plain as day is the name, Jane.

I can’t think straight. I grab my journal off my desk and frantically write out today's entry. Afterward, I clamber into my bed and pick the old journal back up. I flip back to the first page and start reading. I then come across the first drawing. It’s of a dead body, and it’s sickeningly accurate. The caption at the bottom reads, “Marco, may he rest in peace.” The man depicted has bite marks all over his body, his clothes are mostly gone, so is half his face and his right arm. He looks like he was ripped apart from one of the mutants.

I tear through the journal faster than I ever have, taking in every word, every entry, every drawing. Until… I reach it. Across the page is a thing of nightmares. It’s bent and standing on four legs, with two more as arms. Its face is worse than any mutant I’ve ever seen, it looks like it’s dripping and melting… and, crying? I can feel it staring into my soul. At the bottom of the page, there are some notes written... “We can across it today. It took my only son, Chase.”

I swallow thickly. It looks like what my friends described to me when they saw the others get ripped from limb to limb.

It has always existed.

It is not a mutant.

It is an it.

And it never dies.

The first rule of finding a journal is to go back the next day. There’s always another. So after waking up in the morning, I hop back on the train, and head to the spot I found it. There’s a sick feeling in my stomach as I head over on the train as if I missed something, or someone, the first time.

The train lurches to a halt at the station and I quickly rush off. I’m clutching my gun so tightly to my chest that it feels like it’s part of my body, digging into my organs and not helping the twisting feeling in my stomach. I scan the area before making a move. Once I confirm the coast is clear, I creep forward. I walk slowly and quietly so I’m not heard or seen by whatever’s nearby. 

Reaching the spot I found the journal, I search everywhere, looking for something else, a clue, a hint, something that might tell me who keeps leaving these journals everywhere. I’m searching the ground around where I found the journal before I admit defeat and sit down. I take out my journal and sketch where I found the new one. 

Carefully I put my journal away and take out the one I had found. I’m about to open it when a small piece of paper falls out. It’s not yellowed, it’s plain white. Then it dawns on me, it’s a fresh paper, not part of the original journal!

I scramble to open it, when I do, all the colour drains from my face. Scribbled across the paper reads a message “Follow the trail”. I look around and there’s a trail going further into the forest that definitely wasn’t there before. 

With a sense of cation, I rise to my feet and creep cautiously down the trail. As I walk along with it, it slowly turns from dirt to concrete. I gulp and lookup. Not far in the distance, there is a building overgrown with vegetation. It looks almost like a hospital, with vines hanging from the roof. As it grows closer I realize it’s not. There’s a broken fence around it made from wire, and I realize what it is.

Timidly I open the doors to the building, stepping inside the abandoned building. There are old lab coats with moth holes in them and clipboards with yellowed paper resting on a shelf close in a room not too far from the entrance. As I go further into the building I notice a hallway with one light on. A sense of dread and fear overtakes me and I want to leave but if I do now I might never find this place again.

I check my map on my watch and it doesn’t show my location anymore, just a big error message. Not good. I turn on my headlamp and step down the corridor. There are doors on either side of me, I get an early feeling that’s only reassured when I see handprints on the walls and windows and blood smeared on the floor. I reach the first room and it has a window looking into the room there’s nothing inside that I can see, the next room is the same. In the third room, I catch a glimpse of something moving? But when I open the door there’s nothing there. I make my way more down the hallway, and when I get to the fifth room a large skeleton is sitting on the floor inside the room. There’s a clipboard on the wall that reads…

“Experiment 625, unstable, doesn’t respond to pain or verbal commands, can withstand severe radiation.”

“What did they do here,” I whisper to myself as a chill runs down my spine.

I continue to head down the hallway and when I finally reach the end there’s one final room right in front of me. Hanging on the wall is another clipboard. 

“Experiment 700, success, enter with caution.”

Curiosity gets the better of me and I open the door. Inside is a body sleeping on a cot with more holes than swiss cheese. As I step closer I notice the body still breathing.

A small gasp leaves my lips. I’m now standing over top of the body and I recognize it’s, no, his face. 

“Xandr?” I whisper, not believing my own eyes. Laying here before is a perfect copy of my best friend, the last of us to disappear.

The body groans and shifts before small eyes crack open and look at me. 

“Kate?” he breathes in disbelief, his eyes grew wide in shock. He shoots up from the cot.

“Is it really you?” I still can’t believe that he could be alive.

“How did you find me?” he asks, standing up.

“I followed the note…” I tell him, not believing my own words now.

“What note?” he asks.

“There was a note in a journal that told me to come here,” I explain.

His eyes grow wider, and he frantically grabs something from under his bed and shoves it in his cargo pants pocket. 

“We have to go,” he tells me, grabbing my wrist and running out of the room.

“What why?!” I shout, running with him.

“I’ll explain later,” he shouts back before we rush out of the hallway.

As we’re running out of the building I notice a small children's nursery. There are toys scattered everywhere and in the middle of the room, I notice a large figure crouching down and holding a small child. I barely get time to look because when I blink we’re already past it. 

“XANDR WAIT! WHO WAS THAT?!” I shout in shock, as my legs stop and I attempt to go back to the nursery.

“Kate, I swear to god, if we don’t leave now, we never will,” Xandr warns me and begins pulling me faster. I take his word for it. 

I’m running faster now, and Xandr has yet to let go of my arm. We’re out the door of the building in a flash and running towards the train station. I can hear twigs and leaves crunching under our weight as we run. 

Reaching the train station I scramble on the train with him and frantically hit the power button. The train powers up and rips from the station. When I feel safe finally I sit down and look at him.

“How are you alive?” I ask, staring at him in shock.

“I don’t know. All I remember is it took me from near the train station and then I woke up with you over top of me,” he said, looking at me like no time had passed.

“Xandr it’s been six years since you disappeared!” I shout at him.

Something seemed to click in his mind and he bolted up and started searching the train car. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he looked at me.

“Where is it?” he asked worriedly.

“Where is what?” I replied baffled.

“Where is the journal you found that lead you to me.”

I blink before handing him the leather-bound journal that was in my satchel, “here?”

He nodded, sitting back down in his seat and frantically flipping through pages of the journal. He flipped to a page I hadn’t read and turned it to me.

“We have to find this building,” he said sternly.

I looked at the journal page he was showing me. It was a large spiralling building that looked like one of the office buildings I read about in journals.

“Why?” I ask him.

“Because they have Abby,” he tells me like he’s reminding me of something important.

“No…” I whisper as a wave of dread washes over me.

Abby was the little girl in our group. She was Mason’s daughter and when she went missing eighteen years ago Mason went insane looking for her. One day he left the camp and he never returned. All we got was the train arriving back at the station with a severed arm inside of it like it had been chopped off by something attacking him as he tried to flee.

He was the fourth of us to go missing.

“There’s no way she’s alive,” I shake my head, looking at the ground.

“How can you know that for sure?” he asks me.

“Because I watched her die in front of me,” I state solemnly, remembering that dreaded day.

We had gone out together because she wanted to come with me and Mason. When we got to our stop and got off she happily skipped ahead and was singing as she picked mutated flowers. We told her to stay close but then, a dark shadowy figure took her when she got too far for us to shoot it. We watched in horror as it swallowed her up in one gulp and ran off from where it came from.

I vowed never to go back to that meadow.

“Kate I’m going to this building with or without your help,” he stated, staring me dead in the eyes.

I sighed, I couldn’t stop Xandr once he was set on something. “Fine, I’ll go with you, just tell me where. I’m not losing you again.”

“Farther than the last train stop,” he said.

“But we’ve never gone that far out.”

“We have to if we’re going to save Abby.”

The train had been travelling for days. We had left the day after the arrived back at home. 

When we had gotten home we collected everything we could from the house. After the train was finally loaded with everything, I took a deep breath and pressed the button to open up the gates. There was no way we could take care of the animals while we were gone so we had to decide whether or not the world was ready, they were being released.

As the train had whizzed past the ground below we watched the creatures running free in the world, the fastest animals already long gone into the overgrown and mutated forest. When the first was killed though, I had to look away.

It had been nearly six days since then. We were travelling on the train as far as Xandr said we had to. 

I suddenly got a sickening in my stomach. Sitting up from my nap I looked out the window. In front of us was a large wall! It seemed to go for miles and run enclose the smaller wall! 

“No way,” I breathed in disbelief as I stared out the window.

Xandr was in equal shock and staring out with me.

“This isn’t possible,” he mumbled before turning around and frantically searching through the countless amount of journals we had stacked.

I watched as he flipped through the pages upon pages of one before all the lights went dark and we tunnelled through the wall. When we came out on the other side I was in total disbelief.

In the distance was a city. A city that looked like it had been there for many, many years. Suddenly, a journal was shoved at me, open to a certain page…

“Today we found a wall. We have no idea who built it but all around it had signs that read ‘danger!’ and ‘keep out!’. Onyx didn’t trust them and we went inside anyway. Inside the wall, there are countless new flora and fauna that have remained untouched from the radiation. We left the city years ago but we never expected to find something like this. What were they using it for?”

He gave me a new page once I finished…

“There are claw and scratch marks on the inside wall like something was trying to get out. We went inside the smaller circle to find the remains of a village. Something bigger than we could imagine was definitely being planned here…”

My face was pale. The city was mentioned, and so were the two walls. But what happened that they stopped mentioning the second wall? Or were they mentioning it all this time… Everything I had known up to that point stopped making sense as the train hurdled faster towards the city.

“Xandr, what does this mean for us?” I ask his face reflecting the same pale expression.

“It means, we’ve been living a lie,” Xandr whispered, neither of us wanting to believe his words.

“But, how? Hasn’t anyone ever found the second wall after they entered? Dint’ they wonder why there was a second wall? Why didn’t they leave again?”


End file.
